Ballard for Lunch

 

7/7/25 "Lunch Set A" at AA Sushi, Ballard

A few months ago when I discovered AA Sushi, I vowed to get back there whenever I was in Ballard again. An appointment brought me there on Monday, and I timed it so that I could have lunch at AA afterwards. In Seattle, it’s easy to get great sushi if you’re willing to pay the high price it usually commands. I continue to be impressed by AA’s excellent food compounded by the restaurant’s fantastic value.

Before and after lunch, I made a few more sketches on Market Street – a cool neon sign shaped like a saxophone (tiny in my sketch); a ubiquitous Lime bike; the EAT sign above Fuego Restaurant; and a couple of locals on their lunch break at Bergen Place. I made a note to come back another time to make a more complete sketch of Fuego’s brick building, which once housed Fire Station No. 18 (now on the national historic register).

Ballard neighborhood

Upstairs is the New Downstairs

 

7/7/25 Mt. Rainier through an upstairs window

My routine on clear mornings is to go upstairs before breakfast to see Mt. Rainier. Now that the windows are clean, my joy in this ritual has increased tenfold. On Monday, it was warm enough that I could have stood on the front deck to make this sketch, but I looked through a window instead – just because I could.

Material notes: You may recall my posts from a couple of years ago when I put together a compact portfolio of select sketch materials that I could keep downstairs for use in the evenings. My need for this “downstairs studio” is explained in this post, and the filled portfolio is shown in this one. Although the original need for it went away, I kept the portfolio intact.

My "downstairs studio" is now my upstairs studio (used on the floor
in this mostly empty room)

In an amusing and ironic turn of events, my downstairs studio has become my upstairs studio! Since moving my studio down to the main floor, I’ve (almost) emptied that former studio room and the former bedroom (which I now use only for yoga and workouts). Although I haven’t sketched any sunset skyscapitos lately, those upstairs windows are where I would make them. I had brought my portfolio upstairs for such occasions, and it came in perfectly handy on Monday when I spontaneously felt like sketching Her Majesty.

Observations

 

6/21/25

5/10/25

Greg’s memory care community has had quite a bit of turnover lately. A couple of residents passed away, and several new residents have moved in. I get to know each one over time, sometimes from brief conversations, but mostly through observation and especially through drawing. Many doze during group activities, making them easy targets for me. But I also enjoy trying to catch them while they are focused and engaged.

6/24/25

6/24/25

7/1/25

We Go Waaaay Back

7/5/25 The Maple, Maple Leaf neighborhood
(on location and photo reference)

The three of us have been friends since seventh grade, and we also went to college together. We go waaaay back. As one raised children, and all of us had careers and busy lives to live, we stayed in touch but rarely got together. We are the kind of friends who can skip years or decades, but when we get together, we can pick up the conversation without missing a beat. The kind where one need say only a name or a phrase, and everyone busts out laughing because we all get it.

Just recently we started seeing each other more often, and we finally have time to do that. (I think that’s one of the biggest benefits of retirement.) As a strong introvert, I’m not interested in continually meeting new people, but the older I get, the more important it is to stay in touch (or get back in touch) with people I care about from my past. I’m finally making the effort to do that.

Drink & Draw at Old Stove

7/3/25 Old Stove Brewery Gardens, Ballard neighborhood

After last month’s scouting mission to Old Stove Brewery Gardens, I knew that I had found a great USk drink & draw venue. Last Thursday turned out beautiful by late afternoon – sunny but neither hot nor too cool. With ideal conditions in the spacious Ballard location (and lots of free parking), the high turnout of sketchers concurred that Old Stove is a keeper. It was a fun way to begin the long Fourth of July weekend.

Playing Tourist in West Seattle

 

7/2/25 Water taxi from downtown to West Seattle

Last month when Mary Jean, Roy and I explored Pioneer Square Habitat Park at the waterfront, we were all reminded of the water taxi service as we sketched a boat there. Operated by the Washington State Ferries, it’s typically off my radar, but the pedestrian-only service between downtown Seattle and the east side of West Seattle is well used by commuters who want to skip West Seattle bridge traffic. With the fare being only a little more than a bus or light rail ride, we decided it would be a fun sketching excursion.

Feeling like tourists!

Meeting at the Washington Street Boat Landing pergola, we caught a mid-morning taxi. The ride across Elliott Bay takes only about 15 minutes, so we all sketched quickly from the deck. Accompanied by more tourists than commuters on that sunny ride, we definitely felt like we were in vacation mode, too!

On the other side, West Seattle offers some of the best skyline views of downtown Seattle from Hamilton Viewpoint Park and Seacrest Park, both short walks from the ferry terminal. It had been 10 years since I last sketched in the area, so it was familiar but felt fresh to me.

The view from Seacrest Park. This may be one of my favorite sketches so far using Caran d'Ache Neocolor II crayons. I'm finally feeling comfortable using them on location and getting into the color palette available in these water-soluble crayons. 

Mary Jean sketching at Seacrest Park

I made this sketch in our current round-robin sketchbooklet.

For lunch, we got a nice shady table at Marination Ma Kai, a Hawaiian-influenced seafood restaurant. *

Light rail riders, my lunch at Marination and coffee after the ferry ride home.

On the short ride back to downtown Seattle, we all agreed that it was fun playing tourists for the day on this easy getaway.

* The site of the Marination Ma Kai restaurant has personal significance to me and my family. It was the location of the former Seacrest Boathouse, where Seattle’s Tengu Club fishing community launched their boats. My father was an enthusiastic Tengu for many years. This article tells the story. A recent documentary tells the history of this club and how its Japanese American members were affected during and after World War II. The Tengu Club is recognized with a plaque outside the restaurant (below), and derby awards are displayed inside.

This plaque recognizes Seattle's Tengu Club, begun by Japanese Americans in the 1930s.

Clean Windows

 

6/30/25 photo reference

It’s embarrassing to admit: In 35 years, we had never had our windows professionally cleaned. We occasionally Windexed interior windows, but never the exteriors, and certainly not the three skylights. Making many, many studies through the bedroom and studio windows upstairs, I had found it increasingly frustrating trying to see through the haze of decades of grime.

Chatting with a friend one day, she happened to mention the window cleaning service she uses and highly recommends. That was all I needed; I called Husser Window Cleaning Service immediately.

Almost all of the 22 windows and glass doors they cleaned included storm panes that had to be removed and cleaned on both sides and screens that had to be removed and cleaned. They also cleaned all the tracks of windows that open.

This room is where I go for yoga and to view Mt. Rainier. When morning light pours in through
the now-clean windows, angels sing.

When Liam brought out the extension ladder to wash the skylights, I went out to sketch him, but it was so stressful watching him move around precariously on the roof that I couldn’t do it! I sketched this from a photo instead.

The next morning when I went upstairs to see Mt. Rainier, I heard angels singing!